Most baby cribs comprise a mattress located within a bed frame having four sides, with each side comprising vertical bars positioned between a top molding and a bottom molding. Two opposing sides are vertically displaceable, known as a crib gate, in either a raised (closed) condition or in a lowered (open) position. Lowering the gate is accomplished by displacing a footbar (located at the bottom and just under the bottom molding) which disengages a bottom molding catch from the footbar and then allows the gate to drop downward. Raising the gate is accomplished by simply lifting the gate upwards until the bottom molding catch re-engages the footbar, thereby locking the gate in a raised position.
In most instances, the parent or infant-caretaker will be holding or rocking the baby to sleep. When the parent or infant-caretaker is ready to place the baby on the mattress, the gate is lowered as discussed previously. Usually, the parent or infant caretaker is so focused on positioning the infant on the mattress without waking the infant that frequently the parent or infant-caretaker forgets to raise the gate after the infant is placed on the mattress. The result is that the infant is left in a crib with the gate down. If the infant is old enough to roll and raise himself/herself, the infant could fall out of the crib at a later time because the crib gate remains in an open condition.
Moreover, a recent study conducted by a Temple University researcher has recommended increasing the side heights of cribs to reduce the number of falls from cribs. If this recommendation is followed, the opening and closing of the crib gate by the parent/caregiver should occur more often since raising the height of the crib sides makes it more difficult to place or lift a toddler from the crib without opening the gate. As a result, this increases the chances that a parenticaregiver may walk away from a crib with the toddler inside and with the crib gate left open.
The following U.S. patents disclose some form of indication or warning in association with a baby crib or bed.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,734,104 (Gollhofer) discloses an alarm for alerting an attendant that the crib gate is in a down position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,030 (Weiss) discloses a safety device for a crib that provides an indicating light or an alarm at the crib to alert a person to the fact that the crib gate is in a down position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,032 (Langsam) discloses a crib rail safety monitor that utilizes a weight sensor for detecting the presence of a child in the crib and an ultrasonic motion detector or infrared temperature sensor for detecting the presence of an attendant at the crib in order to provide an indication or alarm at the crib that the crib gate is down when the child is in the crib and is unattended.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,819 (Valenti) discloses a safety cushion device that is positioned on the floor adjacent the baby crib for cushioning the fall of a child and an alarm for alerting an adult of such a fall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,181 (DePonte) discloses a wet bed alarm and temperature monitoring system for detecting urine on the bed and the temperature of a person lying on the bed and for supplying a remote annunciator panel with such information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,683 (Slomowitz et al.), whose entire disclosure is incorporated by reference herein, discloses an automatic crib gate indicator that utilizes a remote-enabling means to enable a crib gate sensor that detects the open condition of the crib gate and then transmits a signal to a remotely located indicator.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,274 (Slomowitz et al.), whose entire disclosure is incorporated by reference herein, discloses an automatic crib gate indicator that utilizes a crib gate sensor, for detecting the open condition of the crib gate, that is integrated with a baby monitoring system.
Therefore, there remains a need to provide the parent or infant-caretaker with an automatic remotely-located indication or warning of the crib gate being left in open condition.